


Kisses

by WrittenButNotRead



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animal Hybrid AU, Cat hybrid!Kenma, Gen, Healing, Implied/Referenced Abandonment, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kissing, Panic Attacks, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23054392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrittenButNotRead/pseuds/WrittenButNotRead
Summary: Kenma still isn't used to his new home yet but he's learning.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma & Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Kisses

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Jealousy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8119468) by [SharkGirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharkGirl/pseuds/SharkGirl). 



> Hello! This is my second ever fic so I'm not really sure how to tag still but trigger warning, there are two kisses between adults and minors, neither are intended to be titillating or graphic, also a panic attack related to trauma. If any of this offends or upsets you feel free to skip this one and if you have any suggestions on how to tag this better let me know!
> 
> This story was inspired by SharkGirl's Home series, particularly "Jealousy", I highly recommend checking it out though you could read this by itself as well.

“Alright boys it’s bedtime, go brush your teeth.” Mrs. Kuroo said, nudging her son and Kenma both off the couch, completely unsympathetic to Tetsurou’s whining and complaining (“Just one more episode, mom, come on we have to see what happens next!”).

Kenma had been living in the Kuroo’s apartment for about 2 weeks now, after having been found hiding behind a dumpster by Tetsurou while he’d been doing chores. Kenma is a calico cat hybrid, with fluffy ears, tail, and sharp feline eyes. He had apparently been abandoned by his previous owner. None of the Kuroos really knew how long the cat hybrid had been living on the streets before Tetsurou found him. He didn’t look much older than Tetsurou, who was 7. Given, how small he was, he was probably even younger.

When Kenma first arrived, cold and starving, he mostly hid under the bed and would only come out to Tetsurou’s gentle prodding and the promise of food. After finally feeling mostly comfortable in the relative safety of Tetsurou’s room, Tetsurou started coaxing him out into the rest of the apartment, trying to get him more comfortable by taking him by the hand wherever he went. Kenma allowed himself to be led, but the first few attempts ended quickly when Kenma would dart back to the bedroom at the slightest unexpected noise or sudden movement.

It was clear by the way Kenma shied away from Tetsurou’s parents that he didn’t entirely trust them yet, and while he had yet to share any information about his past before Tetsurou found him, they all could see it weighing heavy on his small shoulders. But they didn’t press the issue, not wanting to scare Kenma away, and allowed him to slowly become acquainted with his new living space. They all hoped eventually he would finally feel comfortable enough to venture out of Tetsurou’s room on his own.

Tonight had been something of an accomplishment. Tetsurou had convinced Kenma to sit on the couch with him and his mother watching TV late in the evening. Mr. Kuroo was working late at the office.

After brushing their teeth, Kenma followed Kuroo back into the living room to say goodnight before going to bed.

“G’night, mom” Tetsurou chimed and was about to turn back towards his room when Mrs. Kuroo interrupted-

“Hold on, give me a kiss!”

It was a pretty standard evening ritual in the Kuroo house, an affection done without a second thought, and so, without batting an eye, Tetsurou leaned over the back of the couch and gave his mom a quick kiss on the cheek, before turning towards Kenma looking for him to do the same.

But Kenma had turned white as a sheet during the exchange, his tail puffing up, and the hand held loosely in Tetsurou’s grasp had gone clammy and become a vice grip.

“Kenma? Is everything okay?” Tetsurou started to ask before Kenma suddenly wrenched out of his grasp as if jolted, and frantically, in stiff and jerky movements, climbed over the couch and into Mrs. Kuroo’s lap.

Mrs. Kuroo only had time to widen her eyes in surprise before Kenma’s lips were on hers and a sandpaper tongue was roughly forced into her mouth, Kenma’s eyes squeezed shut tight. The sensation was more like a wall of pressure than a proper kiss, Kenma lacking in any skill as his tongue clumsily attempted to slide alongside Mrs. Kuroo’s.

The kiss lasted for barely a second before reflexes kicked in and Mrs. Kuroo was jerking her head back, grasping Kenma’s tiny hips and lifting him off her lap and away from her on the couch, as far as possible, disconnecting their mouths even as Kenma tried leaning closer to put more force into the already crushing kiss.

“Ke-Kenma Kenma what on earth-?” Mrs. Kuroo sputtered out as Tetsurou looked on in confused alarm.

Kenma was breathing heavily, his entire chest heaving with the effort and his eyes rimming red as they watered up. “Was- was it not good?” and Kenma’s voice broke as tears started to stream down his face.

“Kenma what was that?” Mrs. Kuroo honestly had no idea what was going on.

“Please please I’ll make it good I swear I can be good-” Kenma’s words started speeding up, voice reaching a keening pitch has the tears poured harder, “ please I promise I’ll be good please don’t-”

“Kenma, what??”

“-please don’t throw me away I can be good I’ll be better next time-” Kenma had taken hold of his tail by now and was wringing it furiously in his hand as more words poured out of him than Mrs. Kuroo nor Tetsurou had ever heard from the cat hybrid in the entire time they’re known him thus far.

“Kenma, Kenma, calm down sweetie, please” Mrs. Kuroo placed her hands on Kenma’s shoulders and when he flinched _hard_ she quickly removed them in favor of a placating gesture. “Kenma, Kenma, please it’s okay it’s okay,” Mrs. Kuroo’s voice softened, trying for a soothing tone.

Kenma’s sudden rapid-fire speech cut off as quickly as it had started and instead Kenma tilted his head down in favor of looking at nobody, focusing solely on the tail in his grasp. His hair hid his face, but the way his whole body seemed to curl inwards, the frantic heaving from before now replaced with stock-stilledness, made it look like he was bracing himself to be hit.

This alarmed Mrs. Kuroo almost more so than Kenma’s words, even the kiss itself, though she tried to recover from her shock and horror.

Through all of this, Tetsurou remained standing over the scene in confused distress and even now despite how much he wanted to go to his young friend and comfort him, he wasn’t sure the physical contact wouldn’t trigger more of… whatever this was.

“Kenma…” Mrs. Kuroo spoke gently in the sudden quiet. Kenma flinched again but Mrs. Kuroo pressed on, deciding to focus on the most alarming and confusing part of Kenma’s plea, “Kenma, honey, why do you think we would throw you away?”

“Kisses… I c-couldn’t…” Kenma hiccupped, but all his words from before seemed to have disappeared, “I’m-, so I was-…”

When Kenma didn’t continue, Mrs. Kuroo tried again, “It’s okay, Ken-chan. It’s okay. You what?”

“I’m broken, so I got thrown away.”

Silence.

And then-

“’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll go back.” And Kenma slid off the couch between Tetsurou and Mrs. Kuroo with a grace only those with the DNA of a cat could possess, and then made a bolt for the front door.

That shocked Tetsurou out of his confusion. He didn’t really get what was going on, but he did understand one thing. Kenma was leaving, and he probably wouldn’t come back. And he didn’t want his friend to go. “Wait!” Tetsurou chased after Kenma, tackling him in a bear hug that had Kenma tumbling to the ground with a shriek.

“K-Kuro!” Kenma tried pushing Tetsurou off of him but Tetsurou was bigger, and stronger, and held on tight.

As the boys struggled, Mrs. Kuroo got up from the couch and rushed over as well, leaning down into a crouch over them to pull them apart. “Boys, boys, hold on. No one is going anywhere this late at night.” It was almost a breath of relief in that moment to be mothering squabbling children, something comparatively more familiar, before diving back into the concerning topic at hand.

Mrs. Kuroo eventually dragged the boys apart from their wrestling match by grabbing a shoulder of each and physically separating them. Tetsurou and Kenma glared back at each other, both a little red faced and breathing hard. Their scuffle at least had the side effect of pulling Kenma out of his panic attack for the moment.

“Now Kenma, you’re not in trouble, you’re absolutely not, but can you please tell me what you meant before?” Mrs. Kuroo asked gently, taking care to remove her hand from Kenma and once again holding them where he could see them a safe distance away.

Kenma glanced away, again letting his hair hide his face, his soft ears pressed flat against his head. This had been the moment he was waiting for, where the dream would come to an end, when the Kuroos would finally realize they didn’t actually want him. It broke his heart, but when he spoke, it was clear and uninflected like normal, “Kisses are something pets are supposed to give to their owners. I didn’t like-” Kenma’s voice cut off with a shudder, “I couldn’t give M-Master good kisses. I’m… defective… so I got thrown away.”

The way Kenma said the word “defective” sounded clinical, in a way that nothing else had, like a classification he’d heard many times before but didn’t really know what it meant, except that it made him different, not good. A definition learned just based on the looks in the eyes of the people that were supposed to take care of him.

Mrs. Kuroo wasn’t having any of that. “Well Ken-chan, that’s not what kisses are for in this house, and anyway, you’re not a pet here and we’re not your owners so you don’t have to worry about that. You don’t have to kiss anyone if you don’t want to. You’re not broken and we’re not going to throw you away. You’re free to stay here as long as you like.” Mrs. Kuroo stated slowly, with an air of finality. It was clear, there was to be no arguing about this.

Despite Mrs. Kuroo’s firm nod and crossed arms after her little declaration, Kenma couldn’t help but protest, “But-!”

“No buts! Now, if it’s alright with you Kenma, and if you still feel comfortable staying here, I think it’s well past the time both of you should be in bed so hop to it!” Mrs. Kuroo announced, clapping her hands together and adopting a more cheerful tone to offset the tension that had come over the room.

Tetsurou, who had been groaning at the prospect not 15 minutes prior, suddenly seemed much more willing to go to bed, quickly jumping to his feet, grabbing Kenma’s hand and pulling him along as he made a beeline towards his room.

Mrs. Kuroo was content to watch them go, but not before giving Kenma a long once over, assessing to see if he was okay, or if he was still seriously considering leaving. While the hybrid looked confused and a little overwhelmed, there was no more look of _fear_ in his eyes from before so Mrs. Kuroo happily let Tetsurou drag the still protesting hybrid away, apparently eager to get Kenma to the safety of his bedroom where he was more comfortable and less likely to suddenly bolt out the door in a panic. ~~~~

After the boys had disappeared behind a loud door slam that would normally have sent Mrs. Kuroo back to reprimanding, Mrs. Kuroo sat heavily back on the couch and sighed.

When hybrids first came on the market, half-human half-animal test tube creations, Mrs. Kuroo didn’t have many thoughts on the matter. It seemed wrong that they were to be treated as animals if they were half-human, but the ads emphasized them as pets and so it hadn’t really seemed much different than the other exotic animals rich people spent money on. It wasn’t anything she could do anything about, so she had tried not to think too hard about it.

But when Tetsurou walked into the house one afternoon with this tiny little cat hybrid in tow, shivering and shaking and way _way_ too skinny hiding behind Tetsurou, Mrs. Kuroo realized maybe she should have been paying more attention to the news debates.

It doesn’t seem right, now, that this treatment is apparently normal for hybrids.

Something in Mrs. Kuroo’s chest clenched as she remembered the look in Kenma’s eyes as he explained that he was defective, the sound of his voice. The feeling was an echo from minutes ago. Mrs. Kuroo took another deep breath .

Mrs. Kuroo knew her words weren’t going to be enough to get Kenma over his trauma, but hopefully it was a start.

~~~

It was another few days before Mrs. Kuroo saw Kenma again. She wasn’t surprised. Kenma had been skittish from the beginning and rarely came out of hiding when Tetsurou wasn’t home. They had been trying to get Kenma more comfortable with moving around the rest of the house, but it was slow progress. Quite understandably now, Mrs. Kuroo thought ruefully as she stirred the both that would eventually become soup for dinner.

What was surprising, when she noticed Kenma’s head peaking around the corner from the hallway leading to the bedrooms, was that Kenma was coming out alone, while Kuroo was at school.

Not wanting to scare him away, Mrs. Kuroo continued prepping ingredients as if she hadn’t seen him. As she dumped some chopped carrots into the pot however, she noticed him shift steadily closer until he was at the edge of the counter, barely in the kitchen but farthest away from her.

“Good afternoon Ken-chan,” Mrs. Kuroo finally spoke up after he caught her glancing his way again. It seemed that was as close as Kenma was going to get. “Are you having a good day?”

Kenma didn’t respond, not that she really expected him to, but he seemed to shrink a little at being addressed.

“If you’re hungry there’s some leftovers from dinner last night in the fridge you can have for lunch. Right now, I’m making soup for dinner. If you want, you can be my taste tester!” Mrs. Kuroo continued, now chopping onions, undeterred by the silence. In her peripheral vision, she could see Kenma inch a little closer to her and the pot.

When she finished tossing in the onions, she was surprised to find Kenma had made it to just out of reach of her elbow, still far enough away that he could escape, but much closer than she had expected him to come willingly, especially after the last time they’d spoken.

“Um..” Kenma started quietly.

“Mm? What do you think?”

“W-what did you mean…” Kenma trailed off, but Mrs. Kuroo just glanced at him before going back to stirring her pot patiently.

The silence stretched.

“What are kisses for?” Kenma finally forced out in a rush, visibly tensing further away from Mrs. Kuroo despite the still significant gap between them.

“Kisses?” another quick glance, “Ah. Well, they’re to show you love someone.”

“L-love?”

“Yes. Like I give Tetsurou kisses because he’s my baby boy and I love him, and I give kisses to Mr. Kuroo because he’s my husband and I love him. I want them to know that I love them so so much and kisses are one way I can do that.” Mrs. Kuroo carefully kept her eyes focused on the pot as she spoke, not wanting Kenma to feel pressured by having her attention on him.

Kenma looked over the counter as Mrs. Kuroo stirred the soup, his small fingers now gripping the edge a little, his tail swishing back and forth. He looked like he was thinking very hard.

“But you know Kenma, it’s really important to understand that nobody is allowed to kiss you unless you both want to. If Tetsurou said he didn’t want me to give him kisses anymore, I might be sad, or upset, but I would stop giving him kisses. If you don’t want to give kisses, you don’t have to. Does that make sense, Kenma?” Mrs. Kuroo asked, softly, gently.

Kenma still looked like he was thinking hard, his eyes staring at nothing in particular, but focused with a laser intensity that surprised Mrs. Kuroo for someone so young, the wheels in his head turning while his tail flicked just the littlest bit faster. It looked like he was memorizing every word, considering every implication. Finally, in his quiet monotone, Kenma said “Yes.”

“Good. I’m glad.” Mrs. Kuroo smiled. “And anyway, there are other ways to show you love someone, like spending time with them, or like making the best soup ever for them! Now tell me what this broth needs, I know it’s missing something!” Mrs. Kuroo said lightly, holding a spoonful of soup towards Kenma.

It was a delicate bridge, but the space between them seemed the slightest bit smaller than it was before.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!


End file.
